Hibiscus Vegan Bourguignon

Hi ! It’s winter time in Paris, and Christmas and New Year eve are quickly approaching ! If you haven’t already decided what to cook, here’s a recipe inspired by the typical French Bourguignon dish.

The traditional recipe consists in some vegetable and meat that are slowly cooked in a red wine sauce. My version is lighter, I have used plenty of different veggies such as beet, carrot, kale, romanesco cabbage and potatoes. As a source of protein, I have used Beluga lentils. Instead of wine, I have created a more delicate and flowery sauce made with hibiscus tea.

I hope you’ll like it !

Ingredients for 5-6 people

4 potatoes

2 orange carrots

2 purple carrots

2 raw beets

1/2 romanesco cabbage

3 kale leaves

1 onion

1 garlic clove

fresh thym

1 bay leaf

1 clove

fresh parsley

some walnuts

50 gr beluga lentils

400 ml hibiscus tea

400 ml vegetable stock

redcurrant or other fruit, to garnish

sea salt, black pepper

Cook your Beluga lentils for 15 minutes in boiling salty water, with a bit of Wakame seaweed end put them aside.

Prepare your vegetable : peel the carrots, the beet and the potatoes and “turn them” the traditional French way. Cut the romanesco cabbage, and the kale leaves. Finely chop the onion and the garlic.

Preheat a high saucepan over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the olive oil, followed by the onion and a pinch of salt. Add the thyme, the clove and the bay leaf and sautee for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic, the carrots, the beet and the potatoes and let cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring continuously in order to coat them in oil. Add some salt and pepper.

Then add in the hibiscus tea and the vegetable stock and let simmer for 30-40 minutes until all the ingredients are tender.

In the meantime, preheat a fry saucepan over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the olive oil, followed by the cabbage and a pinch of salt and stir-fry for 5-6 minutes until the cabbage is cooked, but still crunchy.

Add the kale and the lentils to the stew and let simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Add the romanesco cabbage, some chopped parsley and garnish with the walnuts and the redcurrant.